


Love in the Strangest Places

by Myhoniahaka



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Angst, Assault, Bonding, But it’s not sexual, Captivity, Drugs, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Experimentation, Friendship, Hunters, M/M, Protective Haruno Sakura, Romance, Shapeshifting, Torture, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Uchiha Sasuke Being an Asshole, Uchiha Sasuke Has Issues, Unethical Experimentation, Uzumaki Naruto Needs a Hug, Uzumaki Naruto is a Good Friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23288602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myhoniahaka/pseuds/Myhoniahaka
Summary: Sasuke sat down beside him. He looked at Naruto’s face. The marks on his cheeks that looked so much like whiskers. The messy tangle of hair that could never be combed into something decent. Those eyes which reflected the sky in a much more beautiful array of blue.Naruto deceived him.“Your hands... what happened?” Naruto said, gaze lowering to the gauze wrapped over each hand. Naruto gently lifted them to see better, and Sasuke flinched as he waited for Naruto to scratch him again. “Did—did a shifter...”Yes.He thought.You did it.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 56
Kudos: 151





	1. Chapter 1

"You ready for today?" Sasuke asked. He stretched his arms above his head and glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye, once again taking note of those whisker-like birthmarks. They struck out like a black sharpie on white paper, and Sasuke couldn't deny that it added a layer of attractiveness to him. But good looks didn't make way for good personalities, and Sasuke found that Naruto was far too annoying.

He always chattered and laughed, always fidgeted and moved, constantly had that damn mouth open for the world to hear.

Sasuke curled his lips, his eyes never straying from Naruto's face. Sasuke normally focused on the assignments of his students, but today, Naruto had yet to utter a single word.

He wanted to say that he liked it, but with Sasuke being responsible for Naruto's quietness, it was less welcoming.

"As ready as every other year." Naruto said.

Sasuke almost winced. Every year on the first day of school, Sasuke asked him to give a lesson that no one should ever have to tell. Naruto was well within his rights to refuse, so it wasn't like Sasuke was doing anything wrong. But the deep bite of guilt always gnawed at him anyways.

"I want you to do something different this time." Sasuke said.

_It'll make it easier for you._

And perhaps it would quell the guilt in Sasuke's chest.

Naruto looked up from the papers he was grading. His blue eyes reminded him of the sky. So big and bright. He couldn't decide if he liked that or not, but those eyes often held both Sasuke's captivation and disgust.

It was a complicated thing to feel both dislike and captivation all at once, but Sasuke preferred the former, so he focused on that.

"Different how?"

Sasuke swallowed. Naruto wouldn't appreciate this. Not at first. But that was the point, wasn't it? There was too much captivation in Sasuke's head today. He needed to make way for something else.

And besides, this would help Naruto in the long run.

"Don't get emotional. I don't want to hear or see any anger or sadness."

Naruto furrowed his brows and crossed his arms. He looked at Sasuke as though he were the biggest dick in this world. And who knew? Maybe he was. Sasuke did just ask the impossible from someone already having a bad day.

"You want me to talk about my mom's death without getting emotional?"

"Yes."

Something bitter got stuck on his tongue at the word.

Naruto scowled and focused once more on the papers. "Jackass."

* * *

It was difficult, in every aspect of the way, to listen as ignorant fools taught people that shapeshifters were evil. Naruto could only stand there in bewilderment, wondering yet again how he ended up as a TA for one of the worst hunters in the world. All he'd done was tell another shifter he knew the location of certain shifters. At the time, he didn't know that a hunter was eavesdropping, and all he could do was be relieved that Naruto hadn't exposed their location.

And it wasn't a lie. He did know. But Sasuke didn't understand that Naruto couldn't rat them out, and it wasn't as though anyone suspected him of lying. There was a chain of shifters infiltrating the academy lately. Naruto just happened to have gotten involved by accident.

"And that is what makes these monsters so dangerous. They aren't human. Aren't capable of understanding basic empathy."

Naruto's fingers twitched. He hated the way Sasuke taught this class. For the past two years, after every lesson, all he could feel was the simmering rage building within his chest. It got stronger day after day, and it became harder to resist the urge to rip Sasuke's spine out of his body.

"Which is why it's our job to kill every last one before they kill us all."

But doing that would only prove Sasuke right. Because if there was even a semblance of truth to Sasuke's words, then Naruto would have ripped his spine out by now. But although the urge was ripe—and had been ripe ever since he got this job—he never went through with it.

Someday, he would. When it was safer. When there were less eyes. When Naruto was capable of killing without going feral.

Someday. Definitely someday.

"You're up, Naruto." Sasuke said.

But that day was not today.

He dragged in a deep breath. It was the beginning of the school year. And every year, Sasuke insisted that Naruto tell the story of how shapeshifters destroyed his life.

He watched as Sasuke took a seat at his desk. His hair was almost as dark as the night sky, but if you looked close enough, there was a tint of brown shading those locks. An absurd amount of jell made it spike half hazardly in the shape of a duck's ass, which was something Naruto teased him ruthlessly for. And it was as Sasuke grabbed stacks of papers that Naruto prepared to begin the story.

The only reason Sasuke knew about this story was because Naruto _wanted_ him to hear. _Wanted_ Sasuke to think that Naruto had something against the shifters. _Needed_ to convince him that Naruto was, in fact, a true hunter.

And it _worked_.

The class was big this year. There were boys and girls all squished together in rows. They were college aged, so it was easier to handle them than they would have been had they been younger, and with this class being their chosen curriculum, none of them wanted to miss out on the lesson unless they weren't truly interested in hunting or learning.

Naruto heaved another breath, closing his eyes gently as he recalled the many, many times he'd told this story.

He couldn't screw it up. Not without raising alarm bells in Sasuke's mind.

And he _wouldn't_ screw it up.

Otherwise Karin would have his head.

"As some of you already know," he said, pausing to pinpoint a stare on the familiar faces of students who failed the previous year and retook the class. He wanted to do as Sasuke said and not become emotional. Because every time Naruto went against his wishes, he raised the chances of getting caught, which neither him nor Karin could afford to do.

But the bitter taste of failure swooped in and captured his body, because now there were tears stinging his eyes like acid.

He never did get over his mom's death.

Not entirely.

And he hated, more than anything else, even Sasuke Uchiha himself, talking about it.

Especially _lying_ about it.

"Shapeshifters killed my mom..."

 _Ruthlessly_.

Except shifters didn't kill her. Hunters did.

The same kind of people who Naruto taught killed his mother.

The lump in his throat made it hard to talk, to _breathe_ , so he took in another large breath. Or tried to. It sounded more like a rasp, and in his peripheral vision, he saw Sasuke jump out of his seat in concern.

It almost made him laugh, because Sasuke would kill him in a heartbeat if he knew what Naruto was.

"I'm fine." He said as he raised his hand in a 'stop' motion. Sasuke furrowed his brows, but sat down nonetheless. His black eyes grazed over Naruto's body, and Naruto felt goosebumps rise on his arms.

He never did understand the way Sasuke looked at him.

He turned back to the students. Some were lounging in their seats as they listened. Others stayed on the phone. But Naruto loved the doodlers the most. They always had something fun drawn on the margins of their assignments.

Naruto often gave them extra points for it.

"It happened in the middle of the day," he said, recalling the way those people barged in with guns and knives and handcuffs. "They barged into our house—no warning—and started screaming. My mom put me in the cabinets."

Another deep breath, this one harder than the last.

He swallowed, deciding to take a small break to think about his next words. This was the hardest part, because he could still remember the screams and gunshots and his mom's rattled breathing as she died.

"I heard everything…"

The edges of his vision began to blur. He didn't know if it was from panic or tears. But all he could think about was how he told this story to hunters, the same people who killed his mom, and blamed the shifters for it.

He looked down at his shoes, wondering how many deaths he was responsible for because he went along with Sasuke's teachings just so he could survive in this world. Claiming shifters were anything other than a monster or a feral left anyone within this school dead. Everyone had to have the same values, or at least pretend to have those values. And if one person didn't, no one saw them again.

"There was a lot of shooting. It was so loud—absolutely terrifying."

Naruto was lucky enough to have lasted two years. But he didn't even know why he still taught at this place. Yes, he wanted to find the one responsible for his mom's death. But two years and still there was nothing. He made no difference at this school. Only brought more and more hunters into this world.

Though, he would admit, having connections to hunters was wonderful, because now he could warn shifters who they were, how powerful they were, and what kind of information they had.

It also made Karin's job easier, as all she had to do was ask him where a certain hunter was and he could find out within hours.

These people didn't need to know that, though. _Sasuke_ didn't need to know that.

So he told the story again, filled in the lies and gathered the sadness and anger for the people who truly killed his mom. That was what made convincing Sasuke so easy. All he had to do was sound angry, as if the hatred for shifters was real, and he was _in_.

In what, he wasn't sure. But he was in, and with the other shifters barging into this academy, something was going to go down.

"She told me not to come out until she came for me..."

He swallowed, slowing his pacing steps. He didn't know how Sasuke expected him to keep a straight face and a monotone voice. This was his _mom_ he was talking about. Not the weather. It wasn't as though Naruto wanted to _keep_ telling this story. He could have declined. It was well within his rights to do so. But the more he told this story, the more people there were who believed him to be a hunter, so he couldn't stop telling it.

And as he felt the pinpricks of eyes weigh on the back of his neck, Naruto checked to make sure his voice was as monotone as Sasuke's. Sasuke was watching again. Making sure that he was doing everything right. Except Sasuke often watched for no reason at all as Naruto weaved through the aisle of desks. Naruto couldn't for the life of him figure out why Sasuke stared at him, but it drove him up the walls because it _could_ mean that Sasuke _knew_.

And if Sasuke knew, then Naruto was as good as dead.

"But she never came back, and it was days later when a cop showed up and took me someplace safe."

By the time he finished the story, there were students looking up at him in pity. But a vast majority were angry on his behalf. Some of them even had outbursts where they explained how they were going to get revenge for him, but when asked what kind of shifter attacked, all Naruto could do was explain that he was too busy hiding to look. Which was the primary reason Naruto hadn't killed the hunters who destroyed his life. He simply didn't know who they were, and that was something he had yet to come to terms with.

It was one of the reasons he was here. Once he realized that Sasuke wanted him as a teacher, the gate to discovering the truth opened up. All he needed to do was find the person responsible and he could finally, finally, be at peace.

He took a deep breath and returned to the front of the classroom. Sasuke had his apologetic face on when he took a seat, but Naruto ignored it because there was no apology great enough that could make up for the fact that Sasuke would even _ask_ this of him.

Sasuke stood up slowly. He darted his head across the classroom, analyzing them, learning who would make it and who wouldn't. Sasuke was good at that. It was what made him such an excellent hunter, too. At a glance, he knew everything about a shifter. From the way they fought to what their chances were in a fight. Sasuke knew it all just from one, simple look.

And he was the most terrifying hunter Naruto had ever been unfortunate enough to work with.

He still remembered the day Sasuke _saved_ him from a shifter who Naruto was conversing with. Somehow, Sasuke discovered that his good friend, Neji, was an owl shifter, and without asking a single question, he whipped out a gun and put a bullet in Neji's head.

He did it in a public restaurant.

Afterwards, he expected Naruto to be grateful. But all Naruto could do was cry and scream at Sasuke for killing one of his closest friends.

Sasuke then decided that Naruto's distress was because of how Neji tricked him into thinking he was human.

And from that day on, Naruto vowed that he would do everything in his power to keep Sasuke from killing another shifter.

He failed time and time again, but he also succeeded, and never stopped trying.

"Thank you." Sasuke said with a nod, and waved his hand dismissively to tell Naruto he could have a seat.

Naruto shrugged and took over where Sasuke left off. The papers were from earlier that morning when Sasuke assigned them a task to explain why they wanted to be a hunter. Grading it wasn't necessarily the point. But Sasuke wrote notes to explain why the students reasons were good or bad, and it was an easy way to see who had real motive to kill and who didn't.

Those who didn't had a harder time in this class. Sasuke made sure of that because they needed to face the reality of hunting, not the fantasy of it.

"Now, I would like to talk to you about ferals..."

Naruto zoned him out and read through the papers. The feral part of shapeshifters was one even he couldn't deny was dangerous. But the hunters idea of feral was different than the shifters, because while Naruto knew that a feral shifter was one that couldn't control who they killed once they started killing, the hunters believed that a feral was a shifter who pretended to be human.

And that didn't call for the murder of every last one, as the true ferals were rare and hard to find, primarily because shifters weren't murderers. Most of them simply wanted to live their day to day lives in peace, but were rudely disrupted by hunters.

He shook his head. His mom had been rudely disrupted in that way, and now was dead as a result.

But before Naruto could even read through one of the assignments, the classroom door opened with a loud and ominous creak. The entire class turned towards it, and by the way it opened slowly and with great hesitation, Naruto could only assume it was a late student. He shook his head. Sasuke sure as hell wouldn't be happy with whoever it was. The last time someone was late, Sasuke didn't say a word, but he did make the school year hell for the student.

He almost felt bad for them.

But that was before he caught the familiar scent of musk. He didn't know how he hadn't smelt it before, but he knew in an instant who was at that door, and although Naruto couldn't for the life of him understand why Shikamaru would ever walk into the academy doors, he knew that it could only mean trouble.

When Shikamaru opened the door wide, the entire class was staring at him. Sasuke had a glare in place that would have sent him to the fiery depths of hell if it were possible. And as Shikamaru shuffled to the nearest available seat, he muttered an apology. But Sasuke's eyes never left Shikamaru, and Naruto's only reassurance was that Shikamaru would never come back to this school after today.

At least, Naruto hoped he wouldn't. There shouldn't have been _any_ scenario where Shikamaru found himself sitting with a class of future hunters. So Naruto couldn't help but wonder what the fuck he was doing here.

When Shikamaru took a seat, Sasuke's eyes lingered on him before he got back to the lesson.

"As I was saying," Sasuke said, "ferals can be hard to spot. They're tricksters, and are the most dangerous of any other shapeshifter. You'll think they're human, but they're not. And once you know the signs, you'll be able to see and kill them within seconds."

Naruto scrunched his nose at Shikamaru's smell. It overwhelmed the classroom now, but the hunters would only assume it was body odor. In truth, Shikamaru was a ferret who slipped through the cracks—literally and figuratively—in order to find even the most confidential of information. Naruto often came to Shikamaru for social reasons, but Shikamaru only came to him if he found information that put someone at risk.

He nibbled on his lip, glancing from Shikamaru to Sasuke. For him to walk into a school of hunters, it had to be vital information. But as he saw that Sasuke and Shikamaru were in the same room, he couldn't stop remembering how Neji died because Sasuke just happened to have been in the same restaurant.

What if Sasuke could see Shikamaru for what he was? He wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in his head. Wouldn't care that Shikamaru was a close friend.

Wouldn't care that he didn't do anything wrong.

Sasuke would kill Shikamaru, and him, the moment a simple rumor spread about them being shifters.

"I should leave." He muttered.

Sasuke whipped his gaze to him, and that was when Naruto realized that he'd spoken aloud.

But Sasuke didn't say anything, and by the time class ended, Naruto waited for Shikamaru to relay the information to him. It wouldn't be easy to do with Sasuke here. But as Shikamaru slipped a wrinkled paper in his hand, he realized it was doable.

He furled his hands around the note. The classroom was empty, and now they had to wait several more hours before the next class arrived. Until then, Naruto would have to practice the story of his moms death until there was no more emotion in his voice as he told it.

Until then, he couldn't look at the note.

"The late student sure did stink." Sasuke said. Naruto glanced at him. Sasuke had his arms crossed, eyes narrowed in an angry glare. Was he still simmering about Shikamaru being late?

"I bet he needs a shower." Naruto said, "I haven't smelled something that nasty since I went dumpster diving with my sister."

Sasuke furrowed his brows. "Yeah. He does need a shower."

Sasuke looked towards the door, then back to Naruto. "You mind finishing up?" He asked.

Naruto blinked. There were dozens of papers to go through, and he hated having to do them by himself, but having Sasuke leave gave him an excuse to look at the note, and it wasn't as though Naruto could say no without risking all the sucking up he'd done to get this far.

"Sure." He shrugged as if it were no big deal, and waited until Sasuke was completely out the door to unfurl the paper.

He almost vomited as he read the words.


	2. Chapter 2

"So," Naruto said as he leaned back in his seat. Sasuke gazed at him from the corner of his eye. He tried not to notice the languid way his body stretched over the chair as he sunk further and further away from the back of the chair. It was unprofessional, to say the least, that he sat the same way his students did. But Sasuke found that he truly didn't mind. If Naruto did choose to sit like a professional, like _Sasuke_ , then it would be much harder to ogle him. "I hear you've got a fox shifter."

He sighed. The class had come and gone, which left him and Naruto alone together for the first time in several hours. It was for the best because Naruto had been giving him weird looks all day, and Sasuke needed to know why before he lost his mind.

The looks Sasuke could read clearly. Anger was the most prominent. So clearly Sasuke had done something wrong. But he needed to know what so he could gauge if he truly was the asshole.

Not that it mattered. Sasuke didn't do apologies.

But this news—the fox shifter—a rather new and unique specimen never before seen, had been kept under a tight leash. Sasuke's brother found that shifter, and he wanted no one to know about it yet. Their competitors would try to negotiate a deal where they kept the specimens in exchange for a large sum of money.

The last time their competitors discovered his brother found a new specimen, the deal went to hell, and a week later, the specimen disappeared from their labs.

"Is there a rumor I haven't caught onto yet?" Sasuke said, "no one's supposed to know about that."

Naruto's eyes darkened. Neither he nor Itachi could afford to have a rat in their midst. Anyone who started a rumor or spread any kind of information needed to get out of this school before someone discovered their head rotting in the hallway. The teachers and scientists here didn't appreciate rats, and nothing good would come of having one.

"No. No" Naruto shook his head, "I overheard a, uh, conversation you had about a fox. Got me wondering is all."

Oh.

Sasuke's body relaxed. That was good. A rat would only mean trouble. To know that he'd only been overheard—

"But we only talk about the fox in the lab. You don't have access there."

Sasuke sat up straighter and rolled the chair closer to Naruto. Either there was a rumor or there wasn't, because there was no other way for Naruto to have heard about this particular shifter.

"I—uh."

He brushed his fingertips over the back of Naruto's hand. Naruto, with his blond hair and blue, blue eyes. Always so cheerful and happy. It was infuriating. Never did Sasuke meet someone so _happy_ before Naruto. And never did he think that he would work with such a person.

But he didn't do lies, and Naruto didn't make them, either.

So, there had to be something more to this. Naruto couldn't have possibly gained access to the laboratory. The security guards would have noticed, and if not them, then the camera sure as hell would have. So how else could he have found out if not for a rumor?

"Well?"

Naruto fidgeted and craned his head to the ceiling. Evasion of eye contact. Sasuke knew that sign like the back of his hand.

He jumped out of the seat and looked down at Naruto with a glare.

"When you're ready to tell the truth," he almost bit his lip, then, because Naruto rarely did anything to get in trouble and Sasuke didn't know how to handle it, "I'll be," _in the office_. He thought.

Except he didn't have an office.

"Around."

He didn't listen to anything Naruto said as he stormed out.

* * *

Naruto found him later that day.

Sasuke pretended not to notice. He slowly lifted the cup of coffee to his lips, heard the way his footsteps clanked against the wooden floor, but it didn't matter what Naruto did, Sasuke kept his eyes downcast. He didn't need to look up to know it was Naruto, because he always knew where to find Sasuke. Right now though, all he hoped for was that Naruto hadn't somehow broken into the laboratory or stolen the cameras footage. Because if he did, then Sasuke had no choice but to turn him in.

"Not even gonna acknowledge me, huh?" Naruto said.

 _No_.

"Not until I get the truth."

A heavy sigh breached his ears, and before long, Naruto was sitting in one of the chairs of the teacher's lounge. He closed his eyes as he sunk into the chair, letting his body relax into the comfortable furniture.

"I don't really know what to say." Naruto said, "pretty sure I'll get in trouble no matter what."

He shrugged, and Sasuke once again lifted the coffee to his lips.

"You won't get in trouble unless you did something wrong. But I know you. You wouldn't do that. So who's the rat?"

Naruto clenched his eyes tighter, fists coiling into his palm until blood seeped between his fingertips. Sasuke almost, _almost_ , made an exception to the rule.

Because this was Naruto, the only person that Sasuke talked to outside of family. Surely, even though he had information he was not meant to have, he hadn't done anything wrong.

Surely, Naruto simply didn't know who started the rumor.

"You know just as well as me what happens to rats. You think I wanna be responsible for that?"

Sasuke closed his eyes. Naruto was glaring daggers at him—something he'd gotten so used to that he barely noticed it these days—short bursts of anger were common from him, expected even. He had a small fuse, one that lit at even the slightest and smallest insult.

"I think," Sasuke said, "it's the only way you're keeping your job."

And Sasuke hated that because a part of him liked working with Naruto.

He swallowed. Not a hint of worry shrouded Naruto's face. His eyes had gone blank, mouth a frown, but his body did tense. Naruto shook his head slowly, his hair waving back and forth as a result. Sasuke tried not to stare too long at those golden locks.

He licked his lips, eyes trailing back into the dark depths of his coffee mug.

"All that work to stay in this place." Naruto whispered, "and _this_ is what kills me. A stupid slip of my lips."

Sasuke smiled, almost laughed, because Naruto had certainly worked hard to stay in this academy.

He was one of the hardest workers Sasuke knew.

"You always did have a big mouth."

 _Too big._ He thought.

And yet, Sasuke still didn't know that much about Naruto. Only that he loved ramen, worked hard, and lost his mother at a young age.

He didn't hunt, though. Sasuke _had_ noticed that.

Maybe he gave it up in order to teach.

"Yeah. Yeah. I know."

They went silent after that. Sasuke waited for Naruto's answer, the reason why he knew about that shifter. Naruto shuffled in the chair, legs crossing and uncrossing as he tapped his fingers on the armrest. He never even looked in Sasuke's direction, and that, of anything else, made something painful tug at his chest.

He didn't like this… this confrontation. Naruto could be in so much trouble right now, might even go to jail if he _had_ broken into the lab or stolen the cameras files.

Maybe it was better if Sasuke never knew. That way, Naruto could go on teaching, and they could pretend none of this ever happened.

Sasuke heaved a deep breath. No. He couldn't live with himself if he knew there was a rat and didn't do anything about it. Besides, his family would have discovered it sooner or later, and Sasuke hiding Naruto from them would only make things worse.

So when Naruto did speak, Sasuke gave it his full attention.

"I lied when I said I never saw the person who killed my mom."

Sasuke jerked. That—no. It couldn't be true. If it were, then Naruto had seen—would have watched…

An attack like that… Naruto couldn't have been witness to it.

"I looked. I had to—all that noise, her screams…"

Something dreadful plummeted in his stomach, and Sasuke pressed his hand over his mouth as the image of Naruto watching a shifter kill his mom infiltrated his mind.

It wasn't right. It shouldn't have happened. Shifters should never have existed in the first place.

"I think it was a fox."

His breath hitched.

And suddenly, he felt nothing but the vigor of the hunt. The reason for why he did everything he did was right here, sitting in front of him, and explaining everything that Sasuke could only imagine.

This was why he hunted. To find people in need of help and avenge their loved ones. To protect them before the shifters did any harm. To hurt the ones that attacked innocent people, and to kill the shifters before they killed everyone else.

He only wished he could have saved Naruto's mom.

"I didn't think you actually had one, ya know?—" Naruto raked a hand through his hair, "I was only guessing, _hoping—"_ He bit his bottom lip. "There is no rat, but I _need_ to see that goddamn fox."

Sasuke heaved a deep breath and sat up straighter. He _could_ give Naruto access to the lab. Maybe a tour, as some people were keen to do, and Sasuke could show him the fox they had in custody.

It wouldn't hurt anyone. Itachi might question the ethics, but Sasuke could easily convince his family that it was merely a favor for a friend.

It wasn't like Sasuke was the first to do a friend a solid. He would only be contributing to what his family already did.

"Follow me." Sasuke said.

He stood up from the chair, left his coffee, and waited for Naruto to follow.

Then he headed down to the lab, where the secretary gave them access without a second thought, and walked towards to the room where they kept the fox.

And Naruto, who slowed down the deeper and deeper they got, couldn't have looked more uncertain about this.

Sasuke paused outside the room where they would find each shifter they'd ever captured, and when he glanced at Naruto, he wondered if this was a good idea.

"Are you sure you wanna see this? It might not be the one you're looking for." Sasuke said.

_But it very well could be._

And Sasuke had no idea what Naruto would do if it was.

Naruto glanced at him with determined eyes, as if he couldn't believe Sasuke would even question him on this.

"I'll do anything to see this shifter, Sasuke."

Sasuke clenched his jaw, then slid the keycard into the room where all their shifters were kept.

The horror on Naruto's face made his blood curdle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, quarantine has killed my creativity, and I might not be able to write or update as much as I’d like. I’m going to try, but I can’t promise everything. 
> 
> I already have several chapters of this story written out. So once I get through on publishing them, I can’t promise how often I’ll be able to update any of my stories.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto wanted to vomit.

It wasn't like he was going to, not here, not in front of Sasuke, and certainly not in front of the people Naruto was supposed to hate. But by God did his stomach curdle in disgust. Bile rose in his throat three times so far, and each time he had to swallow it down.

There were shapeshifters—dozens, maybe hundreds of them—in glass cages. Metal restraints adorned their wrists. Some of them had blood running down their wrists and ankles.

It was a hallway that seemed to have no end. Each cage was separated by a thin wall, and there were people in lab coats gawking and studying them. Bruises littered each shifters body, and they screamed as he and Sasuke walked through.

Naruto fidgeted. The shifters eyed him curiously, lifting their noses to catch a better scent of his fox pheromones. They could rat him out in a heartbeat—and some would if they thought the hunters could negotiate a deal—but instead they screamed, begged, and pleaded for him to help.

But he couldn't do a damn thing. Not right now.

"How long until we're..."

He trailed off, uncertain as to how to ask about a fox shifter.

He hoped it wasn't Karin.

She was the only other fox he knew of.

"It's in a different area." Sasuke said, "because it's a new specimen. We don't want it mingling with the others until we've studied it thoroughly. You know how it is."

 _No I don't._ He thought.

And he wished he never had to learn.

"Are you checking to see which species she's compatible with?"

Sasuke slowed down, furrowed his brows, and glanced at Naruto quizzically. His expression was different here. Where it once was relaxed and worried because of Naruto's lapse, he now looked stern. Like a professional, a scientist, an experimenter.

Like the side of hunters the shapeshifters never saw until after they were captured.

"Compatible? We're not finding her a mate."

Naruto almost gagged, the idea of scientists shoving mates down the shapeshifters throats not one he could ever imagine. So he waved his hands side to side and shook his head frantically. That wasn't what he was saying at all. Compatible as in friends, not lovers. He would never give them any ideas on new methods to hurt these people. How could Sasuke even think Naruto meant that kind of compatible?

"No. No. Like, are you making sure the animals you put her with won't try to kill her. Or that she won't kill them? Not all species get along, ya know? And you don't want them to kill each other?"

They didn't want that, right?

Surely even these scientists wouldn't put territorial or non-compatible shapeshifters in the same cage.

Sasuke cocked his head to the side. His nose was scrunched in confusion, as if he couldn't even fathom what Naruto was saying.

"What does that matter? Shifters are all the same. If they kill each other, that's on them. Not us."

"Oh."

_Okay._

So that was how it worked down here.

He ignored the way it made his stomach churn even more.

He bit his lip, glancing at the shapeshifters around him. There were wolves and snakes and bears and lizards. All of them were in their human form, and all of them were injured in some way or the other.

He wished he could say he was surprised.

"We prefer to keep each specimen separate from each other. If we do find ourselves putting them in the same exhibit, it's because we're running low on rooms or we're running some sort of experiment."

Naruto nodded. He tried to keep his gaze from wandering, because in truth, he didn't want to look at them. To acknowledge that they were here. That Naruto was _also_ here and he could do something about it if he just knew how.

Maybe he should ask Shikamaru about that, because the shapeshifters might not have seemed real when he didn't see them, but they sure as hell were real now.

"You look nervous." Sasuke said, "but you don't have to be. The exhibits are secure. No one's broken in or out before. It's completely safe."

Naruto nodded.

He wasn't sure what else to do.

* * *

By the time they got to the fox shifter, Naruto looked like he was going to have a nervous breakdown. Droplets of sweat dripped down his forehead, his eyes darting to and fro as the shapeshifters screamed and begged. Multiple times Sasuke caught him slowing down to get a better look at the shifters.

He wondered if it was a mistake to bring him. The shifters looked human, after all, and not everyone was able to differentiate shapeshifters when they adorned their human body.

"There aren't as many in the place we're going." Sasuke said.

Naruto just nodded.

It was...odd. Naruto was usually such a chatterbox.

"And the fox has been properly restrained. So even though we don't know all of its abilities, it's safe to say it won't get out."

Naruto _could_ be worried about the possibility of the shifters escaping. That could be why he was behaving so strangely. It was something that Sasuke worried about when he first started working here. With the way the shifters fought against the restraints, it seemed as though they could just break out anytime they wanted. And if it truly was the shifter that killed his mom...

Well, Sasuke would have to kill it. Consequences be damned.

He'd probably get fired.

As they neared the room, Sasuke glanced at Naruto one last time. It was hard to know how one might react in a situation like this. Would Naruto panic? Attack? If it were the shifter that killed his mom, how would he respond? Would he try to kill it?

Sasuke had never seen Naruto attack anyone. Not a shifter and not a human. Would he change that if this was _that_ shifter?

He slid his keycard into the control panel, and it flashed green with a ding before the doors slid open. In the room was an empty table, made for the shifters to lie on as the scientists poked and prodded for anomalies of that particular species. The walls weren't gray or white, but a pleasant shade of blue.

Itachi often explained that blue was soothing to look at, and that was why he had it painted that way.

Much like the exhibit hall, there were glass walls keeping the shapeshifters apart from both humans and each other. There were more exhibits than shifters, however, so most of them remained empty. This area, while needing some of the highest security, was only for new shifters, and especially valuable if the shifter was a new species.

Like the fox. Before yesterday, no one would have thought that foxes could be shapeshifters.

"It's just over there." He pointed to the left, where that shifter was undoubtedly simmering in rage. It was a red haired woman, barely in its twenties by the looks of it. It had been pissed when it arrived and it would be pissed when they got it settled. Sasuke strode over to it, Naruto following close behind, and they stopped when they were face to face with the fox.

The shifter had it's arms above it's head, hair a wild array of tangles and dirt. Blood dripped down its fingertips, a result of its attempts to break free.

Naruto, upon seeing her, looked absolutely devastated.

And that was all the answer he needed

"Is that her?"

But he asked anyways.

Sasuke's chest constricted, a feeling he'd grown all too familiar with in his time with Naruto.

It _was_ her. It had to be. Why else would Naruto have that face?

Naruto's throat bobbed as he swallowed, and he heard his breathing grow louder and quicker. He pressed his hand against the glass, as if searching for some sort of physical proof that this shifter stood before him.

The fox was looking at him curiously. It's eyes, while it had been wearing contacts when caught, were naturally red.

_An unnatural color._

And yet, for a reason he couldn't fathom, its eyes shimmered in hope.

He furrowed his brows, wondering about the sudden change.

"Yes." Naruto said.

Sasuke resisted the urge to grab a knife and stab that shifter.

"I'll punish it." Sasuke said.

_Even more than before._

What they were doing now—prodding it with needles and drugs to see how high of a dosage it could handle— it wasn't enough. Sasuke now had proof that it committed the worst atrocity imaginable.

Killing a person, in front of a child no less.

_Killing Naruto's mom._

The bruises on its arms weren't nearly enough to punish it properly.

"It's better if we call her an _it._ Makes it easier to do the work. Cause then we know it truly isn't human."

Even to him, she looked human.

 _It_ looked human.

Naruto swallowed again, glancing at him with fluttering eyes. He saw water pool under his lids, and Sasuke could only feel hot, simmering rage at he looked at that fox.

"I swear to you," Sasuke said, "that when we're done studying her, I'll kill her."

Naruto clutched his stomach. His face had grown pale, eyes darkening and wet with tears. He blinked them rapidly, most likely hoping Sasuke wouldn't notice.

But he _did_ notice.

Naruto curled his fingers against the glass. His nails scraped against it with a horrible shriek.

"Please don't kill her." He whispered.

Sasuke's mouth dropped open. _Don't kill her_? He thought. _What the fuck does that mean?_

"I don't understand. It killed your mom."

Naruto shook his head. "No, she didn't. Karin would _never_ do that."

Sasuke jerked his head, alarm bells ringing in his ears as Naruto said her name.

 _Its_ name _._

"How do you—"

They barely managed to get a name out of her, and it took several doses of drugs for her to say it. How the hell did Naruto know without even having to ask?

But instead of answering, Naruto looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Please," He said. "I _know_ her. She's not like the others."

Sasuke frowned. Knew her? How was that possible?

"Do you... care about her?"

He leaned forward, somehow feeling both disgusted and curious at the same time.

"No. Yes. But I—I never knew…Not that she was a fox." Naruto said. "No I—I didn't know about that. But Karin... she's...um... a friend. She shouldn't even be in here, Sasuke."

Sasuke could only stare in bewilderment, but when Naruto planted his hands in Sasuke's, he looked down, watching the way Naruto dug his nails deep into Sasuke's skin.

"You know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

And Sasuke did know that. He truly, truly did. But did Naruto even understand the risk and meaning of keeping Karin as a friend?

"You owe me an explanation."


	4. Chapter 4

There was blood on his hands.

Before the bandages, the blood dripped down his fingertips. He stared at them for minutes, both horrified and lost as to how the blood got there. Naruto had been holding his hands, and then they started bleeding. Upon a closer inspection, there were deep, crescent shaped gashes lined together on his palms. One on the back of his hands, and four on his palms. All caused by Naruto's fingernails.

That had been a while ago. Now they were elsewhere without a scientist in sight, and Naruto had been pacing and rambling for almost an hour.

"She's a friend of mine." Naruto said, pacing towards Sasuke, changing his mind halfway, and walking the other way. He'd been doing that quite a bit. "A _good_ friend. A _good_ person. I know she's a shifter. But—but she's not like the others. _She's a good person._ "

All the things Naruto said in the lab didn't make sense. Begging him to not kill her, pleading, _crying_. It wasn't like him. He was _supposed_ to have the same disgust for shifters as Sasuke. So even if Karin wasn't the one that killed his mom, he was _still_ supposed to hate her.

"She's just," Naruto raked a hand through his hair. Tears kept spilling down his cheeks, but Sasuke didn't think he was _that_ aware of it. His eyes were red and puffy, so much that they were almost swollen. "You can't hurt her, okay? Do you get that?"

They were at Sasuke's place now. In his room. Because Sasuke didn't know what Naruto was going to say, but he didn't want the cameras to pick up on it.

He told Naruto to shut up until they were somewhere else. He hadn't been kind about communicating that.

"And—and I've known her for years. Not—not that she was a shifter. No. No. I _couldn't_ have known about that. But you can't hurt her, Sasuke. _Please_."

He would have to delete the footage of Naruto begging him to save a shifter. That was too incriminating. He'd get fired on the spot.

Sasuke swallowed, watching the way Naruto paced back and forth across his room. He was a mess, an ugly crier, and certainly wouldn't remember any of this babbling later on in the day. His gaze darted from Sasuke to the wall and back to Sasuke, and he just kept on trying to save face on whatever he was hiding.

And he _was_ hiding something.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Naruto said, voice cracking.

Sasuke's proof was in the fact that fingernails couldn't penetrate skin the way Naruto's did.

"Well?"

Fingernails never dug so deep.

Sasuke glanced at his hands. He'd wrapped them in bandages, but blood still seeped through the white gauze. They'd bled a fair bit. Not enough to be dangerous, and they weren't deep enough to need stitches, but it _wasn't_ normal.

"I can't let you leave."

The thought came to him the moment he noticed the blood. The moment he saw the damage Naruto's nails did.

_Only a shifter could do that._

But Sasuke was certain that it wasn't true.

Couldn't be true.

Not Naruto.

Except the more Naruto hysterically babbled away about Karin, the more convinced he became.

What human was _this_ upset at a captured shapeshifter?

And what human had nails so sharp that they dug deep enough into someone's skin to _bleed_?

"What?" Naruto said, "Why—why can't I leave?"

_Because you're not human._

"We need a plan. To save you."

Naruto blinked. His breathing was heavy and sharp. Had been for a long time now. Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if he fell.

"The cameras saw you tell me not to kill her. It's incriminating. The person watching the footage heard. We need to erase the footage and blackmail the person who was watching."

Naruto collapsed onto Sasuke's bed, breathing in a deep sigh as he, for the tenth time, pulled at his hair. He kept his eyes squeezed shut, processing this, making sense of it, _trying_ to understand.

Even Sasuke didn't understand.

"So—So you won't hurt her?"

He should turn Naruto in right now.

He should grab his sword and stab him.

He should bring him in for studying.

"I'll tell Itachi to stop the drugs."

But they couldn't have Karin telling people that Naruto was a shapeshifter, could they? Drugs managed to get them her name. What else could slip past her lips while she was too high to think about her own preservation, let alone someone else's?

"And I'll tell him to see who she's compatible with. Those kinds of tests won't hurt her, and then we'll know who to place her with when we get to that phase of the experiments."

Naruto nodded shakily, another sob ripping through his throat. The hysterical state he'd found himself in was violent. Not towards Sasuke, but himself. He often scratched at his arms, pulled his own hair, rubbed his face too hard as he tried to wipe the tears away. There was little Sasuke could do but watch, because he had to process the fact that his own hands were bleeding.

He wondered if Naruto would have broke down like that if he hadn't been working for the hunters that tried to kill him.

If he hadn't been working with _Sasuke_.

Sasuke sat down beside him. He looked at Naruto's face. The marks on his cheeks that looked so much like whiskers. The messy tangle of hair that could never be combed into something decent. Those eyes which reflected the sky in a much more beautiful array of blue.

Naruto deceived him.

"Your hands... what happened?" Naruto said, gaze lowering to the gauze wrapped over each hand. Naruto gently lifted them to see better, and Sasuke flinched as he waited for Naruto to scratch him again. "Did—did a shifter..."

 _Yes_.

"I was messing with some nails."

_You did it._

Naruto looked at him quizzically.

"Nails?"

_And I need to turn you in._

"While building a desk from IKEA." He breathed in deeply. "Accidentally stabbed myself."

But he couldn't.

Not if it was Naruto.

Naruto traced his fingertips over the gauze, brows furrowing as he squinted to see it better. Sasuke wondered what, exactly, he was trying to do.

Then he looked at Sasuke as if _he_ were the idiotic one.

"You accidentally stabbed yourself in the middle of your palm?"

Sasuke opened his mouth, closed it, and narrowed his eyes.

It sounded absolutely ridiculous.

"It happens."

Naruto chuckled.

"No. It doesn't. Not on accident. What did you do? Try to nail yourself to the desk?"

Sasuke shrugged. He didn't have an answer to that.

"So, you're _really_ not going to hurt her? Or _let_ anyone hurt her?"

Sasuke swallowed. He felt something hard in his throat, and he tried to resist the urge to tell Naruto that no shifter got that kind of treatment.

Except Naruto did, and now, apparently, Karin.

He supposed that he could make an exception or two.

Especially since Naruto obviously wasn't like the others.

"No," Sasuke said, planting his hand over Naruto's cheek. He traced the top whisker with his thumb.

_Were they whiskers?_

"No. She'll be completely safe. I promise."

_And so will you._

Naruto nodded, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

"Thank you."

He wondered what kind of shifter Naruto was.

If his mother was really dead.

And what other lies Naruto told.

"It's not a problem." He moved his gaze to the wall and dropped his hand onto his lap. "You should stay here tonight. We need to make a story for whoever saw that footage. Or just blackmail him. Bribes also work, though. Same with just deleting the footage and making the guy look crazy by showing non-existent recordings to people."

Naruto breathed a heavy sigh and plopped down until he was laying on Sasuke's bed. His face was still red, eyes swollen and pink. Some locks of hair had hardened into an ugly brown as the salt of his tears made its way into his hair.

Sasuke blinked away his own tears as he thought about how many lies Naruto must have told him.

How he must hate Sasuke.

And how Sasuke wanted to protect him anyways.

It wasn't Naruto's fault he was like this, was it? He wasn't _like_ the others. No. _Naruto was different._

He was kind.

He wasn't feral, wasn't a killer, wasn't a monster.

He was just Naruto.

"Do I get the couch or the bed?" Naruto said. He groped at the bedsheets, letting his hands roam over the soft material as he grasped at it. "Cause I'm really liking this bed, and I won't hesitate to hand you the couch."

Sasuke turned to face Naruto better and frowned. "It's _my_ house."

Naruto smiled, propping himself up by the elbows and giving Sasuke one of those familiar, cheeky smiles.

"Not when I'm done with it, it's not. Now shoo." He waved his hand in a 'go away' motion. "I need to sleep."

"Real mature, Naruto. Acting like you can just kick me out of my own room." Sasuke said, laying down next to him. Like hell he was moving to the couch. "Next thing you know, you'll be kicking me out of my house."

"Sounds like a plan. Wanna get started tonight? This place is real nice."

The glint in Naruto's eyes was full of playfulness, and once again, Sasuke wondered what kind of shifter he was. Humans had that glint often enough, but shifters; they were different. They had a set of behaviors closely resembling the animal they were. Playfulness was something that most every shifter had, some more than others, and thinking back on how Naruto acted, he was most certainly one that played more than other animals.

_A social animal, then._

Possibly one with a pack, or a similar group of friends that protected him upon joining, so long as Naruto protected them and made himself useful.

Not like an owl or a sloth. But a wolf or a gorilla.

"Maybe not tonight." Sasuke said.

Somehow, he was okay with all of this. With _Naruto_. Because he knew for certain that Naruto would _never_ hurt him or _anyone_ else.

He wasn't like the others. Naruto was the exception to the rule.

And Sasuke was okay with that.

"Because I'm not leaving this bed."

Naruto narrowed his eyes in challenge, fingers twitching as he eyed Sasuke up and down. He seemed to debate something, licking his lips in what Sasuke could only see as anticipation. So Sasuke quirked his brow with a smirk, and it was his face that seemed to be the deciding factor on what Naruto should do, because Naruto then pounced on Sasuke with a laugh, grasping at his arms as he attempted to wrestle him off the bed.

Sasuke, in turn, did the same.

Definitely _a social animal._

And because they weren't paying attention to how small the bed really was, they toppled over each other and landed with a heavy thud on the floor.


	5. Chapter 5

Sasuke waited for the water to boil.

It was the middle of the night—three in the morning, to be precise—and Sasuke had woken not only from how loud Naruto snored, but with a craving for some green tea. Under normal circumstances, he'd sleep the craving off. But with Naruto sleeping soundly beside him, it was difficult to find a comfortable position.

Not to mention the fact that Naruto was so damn loud.

So he'd crawled out of bed and into the kitchen. His brother had to have come in at some point in the night. By now, through some sort of witchcraft, Itachi would have figured out that they had a guest. _That_ was a conversation Itachi would dig into. Sasuke rarely, if ever, brought someone home. Itachi would undoubtedly talk about this incident for weeks to come.

But that was a conversation to worry about later. Right now, he was making tea, because after today, something warm and soothing was absolutely necessary.

Right now, he needed to think.

Naruto was a shapeshifter. An animal. Only half of a human.

But he was different.

The water boiled over with a high pitched screech, and Sasuke poured it into a cup.

Naruto was currently sleeping on Sasuke's bed, and Sasuke could easily kill him. Or capture, if that was smarter. He could take Naruto and bring him in. Naruto couldn't do anything so long as Sasuke played it right.

Naruto was now, and would be so long as he remained in Sasuke's house, at his mercy.

"I don't like that." He whispered.

He didn't like it at all.

He dumped a package of powder into the cup and stirred it gently. This entire situation was unorthodox. Somehow, Sasuke had grown to care for Naruto enough to protect him, and because Naruto asked, he was now protecting _another_ shapeshifter.

_Or I could kill them both._

Naruto's friend or not, Karin was dangerous. Just because Naruto claimed she was a good person didn't mean she actually was one. Sasuke didn't know her enough to believe it, and he had no intention of learning if it was true.

He certainly couldn't stop people from experimenting on her, though. Not entirely. He would do as he promised by asking Itachi to stop the drugs and start a new, less damaging experiment. But after that, there wasn't much he could do to stop anyone. Asking for this was already suspicious. He couldn't have people think that he _cared_ for those monsters.

Even _if_ he cared for one of them.

_Naruto's different, though._ He thought, squeezing the cup in his hand. _He's not like the others._

Naruto wouldn't hurt anyone, otherwise he would have done something about the hunters at school.

He took a sip of his tea only to frown as it wasn't nearly as good as he'd anticipated. The warm liquid soothed his throat well enough, but after everything that happened tonight, it was hard to find joy in even Sasuke's favorite flavor.

He wondered if tomatos would taste bland, too.

He shook his head, breathing in a sigh, and exhaling as he slammed the cup of tea on the table. Maybe some alcohol would be better, something to smooth the edge off.

Something to make him forget the fact that he was going against everything he believed in.

Protecting those monsters... just what kind of person _did_ that?

What kind person didn't see a shifter when they walked in front of him, became his friend, and worked side by side together for over a year?

What kind of person was that blind?

_I am_. He thought.

Maybe his father was right.

Maybe he was pathetic.

A failure.

A disappointment.

Someone who couldn't even see what was right in front of him.

"Of all people..." He muttered.

Why Naruto?

Why _him_?

Why someone that he loved?

"God..." He rolled his head back, relaxing his shoulders as he grabbed a can of beer from the fridge. It was cold to the touch, the complete opposite of his tea, and he popped the lid open and started drinking.

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

Sasuke wasn't supposed to be blind like this.

He drank the beer without pause, then grabbed another, and another, and another. He didn't think about the repercussions of it, of the hangover or his inability to wake up properly, but before long his vision was blurring around the edges, body relaxing in a way that it hadn't done in a long while, and suddenly, he didn't have to worry about tomorrow, because right now, there was a shapeshifter in his bed.

"I should kill him."

He really, really should.

He eyed the knife rack behind him. It had all sorts of blades. Butcher, vegetable, meat. All of them would get the job done.

He shook his head. No. Not Naruto. He couldn't possibly...

Except he could.

And he _should_.

It would make his father proud.

So he grabbed one, numbing the feelings that came with killing a shapeshifter. There were always those stupid doubts, and he had to remind himself with every kill that those creatures were monsters that needed to die. Humans couldn't find peace until they were gone. The shapeshifters did far too much damage.

Naruto had learned so much about hunters through both Sasuke _and_ that school. He knew who hunted what, who had which abilities, and where they were going to strike.

Naruto wasn't an exception, couldn't be one, because he knew too much.

Sasuke would be an idiot to keep him alive.

He clutched the hilt of the knife until his knuckles whitened. This was the right thing to do. Killing Naruto, a shapeshifter, and then Karin. But perhaps he should learn who else Naruto told, so maybe Sasuke would have to bring him into the lab. But even so, he needed to get Naruto incapacitated first. A knife should do the trick. Naruto was currently sleeping soundly, _feeling safe._

He wouldn't wake in time to know what Sasuke was about to do.

And more than any other shapeshifter, Naruto deserved this.

He deceived Sasuke.

Lied to him.

Made him think they were friends.

"The bastard..."

No one could get away with that. No one tricked him, lied to him, or got Sasuke to care for them.

_No one_ hurt him like this.

"He's fucking dead."

He stormed up the stairs and through the hallway, fingers clasping the hilt as if it were the last thing he was going to do. And by the time he made to it Sasuke's bedroom, where Naruto lay peacefully on his bed, the knife fell until it was dangling by his fingertips.

All the anger, the pain, it disappeared the moment he caught sight of Naruto.

Sasuke gasped, the knife clattering to the floor. Naruto's body was sprawled across the bed as he continued to snore. His hair was that same, familiar mess of blond, and Sasuke stumbled backwards.

He swallowed, eyes wide, as he realized that he had almost killed Naruto.

And with a kitchen knife, no less.

He chuckled, shaking his head as he raked a hand through his hair. He craned his head until he was looking at the ceiling.

_What_ _was he_ _thinking_?

Sasuke couldn't kill Naruto, not after all this time. Not when they were friends.

Not even is he _was_ a monster.

He breathed in deeply and headed for the bed, sitting at the edge as he stared at the face that Sasuke loved to ogle. The bed sunk with his weight, and Sasuke gently brought his fingers to Naruto's face and brushed his hair to the side.

He bit his lip, gaze moving to where he dropped the knife.

He still couldn't believe he almost did it.

Sasuke couldn't kill Naruto, much less _hurt_ him. Not after all this time.

Naruto moved his head and mumbled something incoherent. Sasuke jerked his hand back, leaving it to hover in the air as Naruto shuffled towards Sasuke and sniffed. His nose twitched the closer he got to Sasuke, and it was such an animalistic move that Sasuke jumped up in surprise.

_Well, fuck._ He thought.

He should have expected it, should have seen it. Naruto was an animal. _Of course_ he was going to smell Sasuke. That was what animals did. It was how they found each other, how they knew someone was coming before they saw or heard anything.

And it was one of the most annoying traits shapeshifters had.

Sasuke shook his head quickly. He didn't know why Naruto decided to smell him while he slept, but it was a harmless, stupid reason for Sasuke to get scared over.

Naruto's nose continued to twitch as his unconscious mind tried to comprehend who else was in the room, and it wasn't until he suddenly stopped, jerked, and darted out of bed that Sasuke realized just how much of a threat Naruto saw him as.

He held his hands in surrender as Naruto's frenzied eyes stared back at him. He'd scurried to the wall, back pressed firmly against it as Sasuke backed up several steps.

This was how Naruto saw him. A hunter, a killer, possibly even a monster.

But Sasuke was certainly not a friend.

"Sorry." Naruto said, hunching his shoulders as he let himself relax. "I'm not used to sleeping with other people."

_Liar_. He thought.

Social animals were known for sleeping together. The only reason Naruto woke up like _this_ was because Sasuke's scent was that of an enemy.

He coiled his fingers into a fist and breathed in deeply. _It doesn't matter._ He thought. Because now he could prove to Naruto that he wasn't like the others.

But first, he needed to learn what species Naruto was so he can make sure no one Naruto cared about got hurt.


	6. Chapter 6

"You didn't tell me we were having guests." Itachi said. Sasuke tightened his grip on the spatula. It was his turn to make breakfast, something Itachi had rudely woken him up for an hour before he had to get up for work. Naruto had blearily sat up after Itachi knocked. It was clear that he was not a morning person, however, because once he processed that someone was at the bedroom door, he plopped back onto the bed and fell asleep instantly.

That had been an interesting sight. Sasuke had expected him to take one whiff of the unfamiliar surrounding and run out of the house, but instead he pulled the blankets over his head.

Just like he did last night, before he'd woken from Sasuke's scent.

He heaved a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. Six thirty in the morning and he could already feel a headache coming on. It was so typical that Itachi would wake him up early—and it was probably payback for the time Sasuke kept him awake past midnight— but now he had to explain what Naruto was doing in his bed.

"Yes well," Sasuke said, adding salt and pepper to the eggs. "An emergency came up. I need you to stop what you're doing with Kar—that fox shifter and start figuring out which species she might get along with."

He would hold the promise he made to Naruto, even if he couldn't explain to anyone what his reasons were. And god forbid they asked. Itachi's eyes narrowed at his mishap, but he didn't question it. He would, however, question this decision, because it was not one that Sasuke would normally request.

And he still didn't know how to answer any questions about Naruto or Karin.

"Stop the experiments... that's not an easy request, Sasuke. We're almost finished with the first phase. If we stop no—"

"It's an emergency, alright. We can't do anymore of those experiments. I can't tell you why just yet, but I need you to trust me."

Itachi had _that_ look on his face. The one where he mulled over what someone said. It was a subtle change in expression. And Sasuke doubted anyone but him could see it. His lips curved downwards, brows barely furrowing. But that was good, because it meant he wouldn't shut this down immediately.

"I will need an explanation by the end of the day, little brother." He said, "But I will tell everyone to stop our current experiments and move onto more... unorthodox methods... as you're suggesting."

Sasuke nodded. There was a lump in his throat, and he tried to swallow it down. But it stayed in place like a boulder that no one could lift. He turned his head when the soft creak of the staircase revealed Naruto finally coming down. He was still in the same clothes as yesterday—a rumpled white tee and plain, blue jeans—a red spiral was stitched on the back and the right shoulder. The clothes he wore were baggy. The sweats hung low on his hips and dropped to his ankles. His shirt was the same. Not clinging to the muscles Sasuke knew he had, but hanging over his torso like a bag.

It would be unprofessional if Sasuke cared enough to point it out.

"Ah, our dear guest finally comes down. Is there anything Sasuke can get for you?"

Naruto blinked owlishly at them, scratching both eyes after his gaze flicked from Sasuke to Itachi. Sasuke wondered what he was doing. Scrubbing both eyes wasn't a good way to defend himself in front of two hunters, and yet he—

"I didn't realize there were two of you." Naruto said as he scrunched his nose. He scratched the back of his neck in the nervous way he did when there was something he didn't understand, and Sasuke glanced at Itachi. It was true that they looked alike, but he didn't think they were _that_ similar in appearance.

"So there's nothing Sasuke can get you? He'd be happy to do _anything_." Itachi asked.

Naruto, an inarticulate as ever, replied with a word that would have sent their father into a spiral.

"Uh." Naruto cocked his head to the side. "I dunno." His gaze flickered between them again. There was uncertainty lining his eyes, small bags hidden underneath as he tried to figure out where Itachi came from and why they looked so alike.

"Definitely not a morning person." Sasuke muttered, low enough for only himself to hear.

Itachi gave Sasuke a wry smirk, eyes glinting with mischief. "You picked a bright one, little brother."

 _Oh no._ He thought.

"Perhaps we should invite him to meet the family. Father would absolutely love to see who you've been—"

" _He isn't going anywhere_ near _father."_

Not when father was even better at spotting a shifter in their midst.

He coiled his fingers into his palms and breathed in deeply. The headache spread around his skull and behind his eyes. A familiar throb that would no doubt last the rest of the day if he wasn't careful.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto from the corner of his eye, spreading the platter of eggs onto a plate for everyone to scoop their portion from. Naruto's hair was wilder than usual, his eyes duller and shoulders slouched. His guard was down in this early morning. And a sense of protectiveness overtook him as Naruto steadily padded closer to the kitchen. It didn't help that he was _still_ trying to wash the sleep from his eyes. There was something so... vulnerable about it. Watching him with his guard so down—when he didn't analyze Sasuke or keep a safe distance away. When his lethargic mind wouldn't let him become alert enough to care that he was surrounded by two hunters.

Sasuke stiffened as he swallowed. Itachi's eyes were narrowed as he watched Naruto. And Itachi was just as smart as father. If not smarter by the way he always knew where to find a shifter. Would he figure it out now? That Naruto wasn't as human as he claimed to be?

No. Itachi couldn't. Sasuke wouldn't let him.

"Breakfast is eggs. Then we gotta leave." Sasuke said, placing the plate on the table. "Dish yourself out and get the fuck outta my house."

Naruto smacked his lips and scurried over behind Sasuke before he sniffed the air, took one look at the eggs, and scrunched his face in disgust.

"Got any coffee?" He asked.

And for the first time in his life, Sasuke wondered if shifters had to follow a certain diet.

An _animal_ diet.

If they did, Naruto was breaking it to drink coffee.

"In the coffee machine." Itachi said, "help yourself. Cups are above the dishwasher."

Naruto nodded.

And shortly thereafter, he sat down at the dinner table with not one, but two hunters.

_How stupid can shifters get?_

Not that he minded, of course. This level of trust was one Sasuke couldn't have fathomed from a shifter who broke into the academy.

* * *

"Thanks for doing all this." Naruto said, "with Karin, I mean. I don't even know how to thank you."

Sasuke nodded tersely. He didn't like how Naruto brought that conversation to the school. There weren't any teachers nearby. But all it took was one ear and a keen understanding of what they were talking about and the rumors would be all over the place.

"I already talked to Itachi about it. He agreed."

Naruto nodded. They sat in the teacher's lounge—alone because Sasuke timed his breaks for when the other teachers were busy—and Naruto decided to join him today.

"Itachi seems pretty nice. He didn't make a fuss about stopping your current experiment?"

Sasuke nodded. Itachi _was_ nice. But not towards shifters. Not towards anyone he didn't trust. He was also deceptive—able to make people think he was a friend when in reality he was nothing but a foe.

And it would be hard to know if Itachi knew about Naruto.

"He can be dangerous, though. Be careful."

But a warning was all he could give right now. Just until Sasuke found the right time to confront Naruto and talk about what they were going to do about him being a shifter and—

"Why did you agree so easily?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke jerked his head. That was a question he couldn't answer. Not yet. And especially not at the academy.

"I'll tell you later. When we're alone."

_Or I'll find some excuse._

He didn't know if he wanted Naruto to know that he knew.

"Okay. After class, then. Meet me at Ichiraku's?"

Sasuke blinked. He hadn't expected Naruto to set a meeting. Or for him to be so interested in knowing why that he would volunteer to meet after work hours.

_He knows even if he doesn't._

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Naruto suspected something. Maybe he knew Sasuke knew. Maybe he was so curious as to why Sasuke would help a shapeshifter that he was now in a hurry to find out why. Maybe he just wanted an excuse to talk. In any case, Sasuke needed to decide if he was going to tell Naruto before the end of the day.

He checked the clock. The deadline to decide was three and a half hours.

* * *

Sasuke had never been to Ichiraku's before. Up until that morning, he hadn't even heard of the place. But it was a small, family owned ramen shop. The waitress was sweet enough to give him a free bowl as it was his first time here. But Naruto was down to his fifth bowl—three of which were on the house—and he hadn't even noticed Sasuke had arrived.

Or maybe he did notice with that keen sense of smell, but simply ignored him.

"How long do you plan to keep me waiting?" Sasuke asked. Naruto side-eyed him with a grin, noodles slipping out of his lips. He tried to catch them with his hand, but ended up flailing because noodles were slippery and wet. Sasuke scowled at the sight. He shouldn't be so surprised that this was the kind of place Naruto would eat at—nor should it surprise him that Naruto was a sloppy eater.

"Just until I decide you've suffered enough."

The urge to get this conversation over with overwhelmed the irritation those words brought with them.

"Suffered enough, huh?" Sasuke said. "And what about when your stomach explodes from all those noodles? I won't be the one suffering then, now will I?"

Naruto gave a chuckle that turned into a cough, and he pounded on his own chest before he could choke on those disgustingly unhealthy noodles.

"It takes more than this to get me bloated." Naruto puffed out his chest, chopsticks pointed down at the bowl of ramen in front of him. "Sides, you're the one squirming here. Some would think you've never eaten ramen before."

"I haven't."

Naruto's look of horror was so worth the confession, and when Naruto glanced down to Sasuke's untouched bowl, he shoved it closer to him.

"You haven't had—what kind of monster?"

Sasuke looked down to the bowl in front of him. It had vegetables and tomatoes swimming over the noodles and it just _wasn't healthy._

"I don't eat that shit."

Naruto's silence made it seem as though he'd just confessed to a crime.

"I can't accept that." Naruto pushed Sasuke's bowl closer to him. "Eat it. Now."

Sasuke quirked a brow. He certainly wasn't going to take a single bite out of this, but he also needed explain to Naruto how everything would work from now on.

"I'm telling you, 'Suke. This shit is magic. Just one bite. That's all you—"

"I know what you are."

And Naruto slammed his mouth shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I forgot to publish this on time. What’s it been? 2 or 3 weeks? Oops. Sorry about that. I’ve been busy with work, but I’m slowly getting back into the habit of writing.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta-ed by the lovely Loveroffanfiction.

Two things became blatantly obvious after Sasuke spoke. The first was that Naruto did not appreciate a confrontation like this. Especially in such a public area. He slammed his hand on the table hard enough that the table shook, making the soup spill over the bowl. It would cause a mess for the waitress if neither of them cleaned it. But Sasuke was too focused on the fact that Naruto was snarling at him to care about that.

The second was that Naruto did not come here alone, and at this moment, he wanted someone to know that this meeting had gone horribly wrong, because now he was shouting nonsensical words at Sasuke, and that boy from the academy—the one with the smell, who was late on the first day, and never showed up afterwards—was glancing at them from the corner of the restaurant.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He had his suspicions about that student, and went to chase him down after class, but the boy had slipped out of the school unnoticed by him, any teachers, and the cameras.

_So I was right._

That boy was a shifter.

And he was a friend of Naruto's.

How fortunate for him that any friend of Naruto's was an exception to the experiments. That boy was now automatically in Sasuke's protection.

"Would you quiet down?" Sasuke said, "you're causing a scene."

Naruto's lips curled. His blue eyes held a tint of red—a creepy ability that particularly powerful and crazy shapeshifters had.

"Fuck you, Uchiha. I thought things were going well with us. But I can see now that you think of me as nothing more than an _it_."

The words were superficial, fake. Enough to gain the attention of onlookers, and enough to make people think it was a date gone wrong. It was a game well played. No one would suspect that any of this had to do with shapeshifters. Or that the _it_ Naruto referred to was just a fake accusation that made people assume Sasuke saw people not as people, but as something to be used.

Very well played.

He wondered who gave Naruto that idea, because there was no way he came up with it on his own.

Naruto ran off shortly afterwards, and Sasuke stood to chase after him. There was no way that he could let Naruto go. There was too much to explain. Too much unsaid between them. Sasuke had to tell him that he didn't care. That Naruto being a shapeshifter didn't matter.

But right as he stood up, that musky-scented boy was in front of him. He held a small smile with eyes that gleamed mischievous, and there were papers in his hand. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Those papers were the assignments from school. Except this boy stopped attending after the first day.

"Get out of my way." Sasuke said. He placed his hands on the boys shoulders. If he had to forcefully remove him, Sasuke would. Even if it meant touching a man who smelled of rotten animal.

_Just what kind of shifter are you?_

And why the fuck did he have a smell?

"Troublesome." The boy said, heaving a long and drawn out sigh. "I have some questions about the curriculum." He held up the papers to Sasuke's face. "Do you mind answering them right now?"

Sasuke clenched his jaw. _How annoying_. He thought. Naruto had a backup shifter in case this happened. Someone who would ensure Naruto got out safely if Sasuke ever figured him out.

"I won't repeat myself." Sasuke said.

The boy wiggled a brow, and Sasuke's heart pulsed through his head.

_Fuck you, you little brat._

The longer Sasuke was stuck here, the further away Naruto got.

"I _will_ hurt you." He said. "Now move."

The boy smiled faintly. "Naruto didn't appreciate what you said, Mr. Uchiha. You must understand why I can't let you through."

_That's it._

Sasuke threw him to the side, igniting the gasps and horrified faces of onlookers. He didn't see where that shifter landed—if he was even okay—and instead tried to find a familiar mop of blond hair.

He glanced left and right, forwards and backwards. Everywhere his eyes could scan. But there was nothing. Not even an animal, so Sasuke didn't know if Naruto shifted or not. And even if he did, Sasuke still didn't know what kind of animal to look out for.

He ground his teeth until they might shatter and raked a hand through his hair, digging his nails into his scalp.

"Fuck!"

Naruto wouldn't return to the academy after this, and he wasn't going anywhere near Sasuke, either.

Tears welled in his eyes. This was his last chance to find Naruto. His last chance to explain.

If Sasuke didn't find him now, he may never see Naruto again.

* * *

He searched until night fell, asked around to see if anyone knew him. Plenty of people did, but no one knew where he lived or hung out. Sasuke was starting to think it might be a lost cause. Naruto was his best friend, but he was a shifter in a world of hunters—a shifter _working_ with hunters—and Sasuke was known for his brutality, for his results.

For capturing or killing every shifter that crossed his path.

"Dammit." He said, tears spilling down his cheeks.

It was no wonder Naruto ran off. Sasuke wouldn't have stuck around after that, either.

And it hurt. The fact that he and Naruto's relationship might be gone. All because Sasuke couldn't keep his fucking mouth shut. All because Sasuke _had_ to figure it out.

All because Naruto asked to see a fox shifter.

"Why would you do that?" He whispered.

Why would Naruto do any of this? What was he doing at a hunting academy?

What was he doing working with _Sasuke_ of all people?

He combed a hand through his hair and leaned against the wall of a gas station. The street lights blinked across the town, flickering on and off with its weakening bulbs. Cars zoomed by in a whoosh. Just like Naruto did. Zooming by only to leave just as quickly.

And maybe this was a lost cause. Their relationship, the idea that a hunter and a shifter could ever be friends. It was delusional. _He_ was delusional. Naruto was scared of him, had never trusted him. The basic foundation of that friendship was a lie. None of it was real because Naruto fucking _lied_.

But if he didn't lie, Sasuke would have killed him.

He sighed, looking up at the night sky. As expected from a city, there were no stars.

He should head home. Itachi must be worried.

"Sasuke-kun?"

The voice was familiar, feminine, and Sasuke recognized it immediately. He turned around to see Sakura, a childhood annoyance who'd crushed on him since kindergarten. Her hair was shoulder length, a stark contrast to how it used to be back in high school. But it suited her well, as did the green diamond tattoo sitting in the middle of her forehead.

Sasuke pursed his lips, recalling how she used to cling to his arm and chirp in his ear. Sakura hadn't been a pleasant person, and she'd never matured even as they graduated the academy. If it weren't for the fact that work kept them both busy, he had no doubt that she'd be stalking him.

And now she had the chance, because she could easily follow him home.

He shuddered, the thought of it sounding more like a nightmare as the seconds ticked by.

"I didn't realize you lived around here." She stepped forward, brushing her hair behind her hair.

"I don't."

She blinked. "Then what are you doing here? I can't imagine you took a day off work to visit this side of town?"

_What side of town?_

Sasuke glanced around him. He hadn't noticed just how far he traveled until this moment, but _nothing_ was familiar. Not the streets. Not the stores. Not even the trees. It was a part of town he'd never visited before, a place where poor people lived. Where crime rates were higher and people stuck together and—

And Fugaku paid Naruto barely a cent.

_Oh._

All this time, and Sasuke was looking in the wrong area.

"I'm looking for a friend. Naruto Uzumaki. Do you know him?"

A town of poor people was a town where people stuck together. It was the reason everyone knew _of_ Naruto. But why didn't they know his address or where he hung out? Was Naruto some sort of hermit who only left his home for work?

No. Definitely not. Naruto wouldn't survive that kind of life. And besides, he was a social shapeshifter. He _needed_ some sort of pack to stick with.

"Naruto? He lives in my apartment complex. I think he had a bad day. He usually goes out to parties or hangs with friends until midnight. But today he wanted to stay in."

 _Mother of God._ Sasuke thought.

Why didn't anyone _tell_ him that?

Whether this was a stroke of good luck or fates way of killing him, Sasuke didn't know. Asking Sakura for help was a sure-fire way to rekindle that crush of hers—if it waned in the first place—which it appeared to have done, but he absolutely had to know where to find Naruto.

"Text me the address."

Sakura furrowed her brows and crossed her arms. She stepped forward until they were close enough that he could feel her breath. And for a second, he thought she was going to kiss him, and he was ready to shove her into the wall before she could move another inch. But that was before he saw her tense posture, her determined eyes, the anger in her face.

She wasn't going to kiss him. She wasn't even going to try. No. Sakura was doing something completely different.

But what?

"If he never gave you his address, then he doesn't want you to know." She said, standing on her toes as if that would make her taller. But it barely did a thing. "I'm not going to betray Naruto's trust like that." She turned around, but Sasuke grabbed her wrist and yanked it back. Sakura stumbled into his chest, a yelp leaving her lips as a fist came for his face.

Sasuke caught it before she could hit him, but that didn't stop her from struggling.

"Let go of me!"

_So now you have a backbone?_

What a time to grow one. A few years ago, she would have given him the address without question. She would have squealed at the opportunity to help him. She would have hung it over his head and claimed he owed her for it.

But now, it seemed she'd matured, and he wasn't at all happy about it.

He did, after all, need that address.

"Sasuke!"

Pain shrouded through her voice, and it was only then that he realized how tight his grip on her wrist was.

"Fuck Sakura, I'm—"

She sprang out of his grasp the moment he loosened his grip, and he watched forlornly as her figure disappeared into the distance.

Sasuke sighed. He didn't know why he did that. Grabbing her, restraining her. It wasn't like him.

And worst of all, the only way to get that address was by chasing her down like a fucking stalker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not dead, guys. I swear. Just in a bit of a writing crisis.


End file.
